Meryl Donoghue

The Relic Series began with a discovery. In the French village where Donoghue spent much of her youth, cast-iron and stone crucifixes lay in the municipal junkyard — grave markers raised as testaments to loved ones, damaged and displaced over time, and eventually discarded.

With permission from the local Mairie, Donoghue acquired the crucifixes. She scanned each one photographically and produced large-scale negatives, from which she made her cyanotype exposures.

The resulting works consider these objects as relics of life, loss, memory and meaning — carrying personal and collective histories alongside questions of faith and humanity.